Personas
A persona sheet (identity, context of use, goals, frustrations, digital comfort), primary and secondary personas, the anti-persona, and what grounds it: interviews and observations, not guesses.
- 23 cards
- 4 topics
- Free
The outline, topic by topic
Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
- Concepts
- Questions
- Sort and link
- Scenarios
A few cards from the deck
Persona: what is it?
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A fictional typical user, described as one specific person (name, context, goals, frustrations) and built from interviews and observations of real users.
It gives the whole team the same face in mind when deciding. It synthesises real users: a persona made up from nothing is only a stereotype.
The project lead of a student carpooling app writes the persona alone, thinking of his younger sister: “Léa, 20, loves technology, wants to customise everything”. What is the main flaw?
- It rests on guesses: nothing shows that she resembles the real users
- Her age is too precise: a persona is described by an age range, like a marketing segment
- She is too detailed: a persona must stay general to cover every student
- She is on her own: there should be one persona per feature of the application
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It rests on guesses: nothing shows that she resembles the real users
A persona's value comes from its evidence: every trait must be backed by interviews or observations of users. A relative pictured by a single person reflects that person's ideas, not the users'. A precise age and concrete details, on the other hand, are intended: they make the person tangible.
A persona sheet describes its identity, its …, its … and its …, as well as its comfort with digital tools.
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A persona sheet describes its identity, its context of use, its goals and its frustrations, as well as its comfort with digital tools.
These headings are there to decide with: where and on which device the person uses the application, what they want to achieve, what blocks them.
Primary persona: what is it?
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The persona whose needs win when they conflict with the others': the interface must first satisfy this one fully.
Trying to please everyone gives a mediocre interface for each. The secondary persona is served as long as it does not get in the primary one's way.
The team argues about keyboard shortcuts. The developer wants twenty, the graphic designer wants none. The primary persona opens the application twice a year, on a phone. What causes the disagreement and what is the decision?
- Both are right; keep ten shortcuts, midway between the two positions
- Each designs for themselves; the persona has no keyboard and no routine with the tool: no shortcuts
- The developer designs for the average user; follow the most experienced person's opinion
- A vote is missing: the team decides by majority, each member standing for one user
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Each designs for themselves; the persona has no keyboard and no routine with the tool: no shortcuts
The disagreement comes from each person taking themselves for the user. The persona provides an arbiter outside the team's tastes: an occasional phone user gets nothing from keyboard shortcuts.